1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup system in which a camera communicates with an external apparatus to take a picture, the camera, the external apparatus, an image pickup program, a recording medium, and an image pickup method.
2. Description of Related Art
In cameras such as digital cameras and video cameras, besides a photographing mode in which exposure is automatically controlled, another photographing mode in which various settings can be manually performed has conventionally been proposed and been in practical use.
It is assumed that a user manually performs various settings of such a camera and photographs using the camera. When the user changes the settings for every scene to be taken, disadvantageously, the time necessary for the operation increases in proportion to the number of setting items to be changed. Moreover, in recent compact cameras, various operating members are miniaturized and functions thereof are shared. Accordingly, there is a drawback that the operability is not necessarily good.
In consideration of the above disadvantages, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-138860 discloses a technique whereby a camcorder is connected to a personal computer (PC) through a serial bus and the camcorder is operated on the side of the PC to set or change control data for the camcorder. According to this technique, a plurality of selectable control data items are set with respect to one control item, data items necessary to photograph are selected from the set control data items, and a camera included in the camcorder is controlled on the basis of the selected control data items.
According to the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-138860, the PC does not include means for selecting between the priority of the operation for setting various photographing conditions on the camera side and the priority of photographing conditions set on the PC side upon photographing. Thus, the flexibility of photographing is low. For example, it is assumed that photographing conditions of the camera are set on the PC side and the user then grasps the camera to photograph. If the user desires to slightly change the photographing conditions and then photograph, he or she must go to the PC and change the photographing conditions.
Further, according to the above technique, a plurality of control data items are set once. Disadvantageously, the user cannot confirm how each control data item contributed to the result of photographing. Accordingly, it takes much time to set the optimum photographing conditions. In addition, some experience is required for setting.